Jurors awarded an additional $500,000 to the plaintiff in a case against the chemical company DuPont.
The jury in Columbus, Ohio, said a chemical used by DuPont at a plant in West Virginia along the Ohio River caused a man to get cancer. They’ve awarded him more than $5 million in compensatory damages, plus an additional $500,000 in punitive damages.
It’s the fourth case that could potentially help settle more than 3,500 lawsuits pending against the chemical company. The first ruling, issued last November, awarded the plaintiff $1.6 million – DuPont is appealing that case. Another case was dismissed, and a third settled.
DuPont says this latest verdict will be appealed because it was the result of misrepresented findings of an independent science panel that investigated the effects of the chemical C8. DuPont believes jurors were misled about the risks of exposure to the chemical.